I've long liked the idea of integrated devices, so I can stop carrying a Palm *and* a cell phone around. But to date the integrated devices have been lacking. The final block that really kept me from an integrated device was screen resolution. The 160x160 screens on my old Palm IIIx and Visor Deluxe always kind of bothered me, and once I switched to the Hi-Res color screen on my Clie NZ-90 I knew I couldn't go back to 160x160 displays. And that's the best the decent integrated devices, like the Treo 600, had. Now the Treo 650 looks like it may be what I've been waiting for. 320x320 is a decent display - not quite as nice as 320x480 but still good, and BlueTooth for my headset. And it supports EDGE for higher performance data connections, and the Blazer 4.0 browser should actually be decent.

I've been wanting this Treo 650 for a month, but I'm concerned about their initial price point. Thing is, I just lost my cell phone and I think I might end up with an iPaq. The question is, can I sync it with my Mac? PalmOne is the only one that has native support for a Mac. I believe I have to purchase third party products for the others.

Well, the damn insurance on the phone required me to get a Nokia. Even worse. However, I believe the iPaq will have a $100 price point UNDER the Treo, but I'll see. In the meantime, I'll live with the Nokia until around Christmas and see what I end up with.

The database apps on WinCE only sync with Access, and there is no Mac version of that. There are third party applications that can translate between Filemaker or what have you and something that you can use on the iPaq, but of course those cost more money.

Are you really saving yourself any money when you have to buy third party converters for each new thing you want to use?

On the other hand, Apple directly supports Palm sync with its own iSync conduit, which is a freebie download.

YMMV, of course, but really look at what you will be spending before making a decision based on cost.

However, you end up with a Palm you can't upgrade the OS with unless you buy the same third party app you'd have to buy with Windows CE. Actually, PalmOne itself recommends the purchase of Missing Sync for Palms and Mac. It does more for you than Hotsync does natively.

Adding to Zoner's comments: no Palm OS 4 or 5 devices is upgradeable, is palmOne's official policy. The last full OS upgrade that Palm shipped was 3.5.3, IIRC, for the Palm III and ealier models that have their OS stored in flash.

palmOne sells the software. Hardly an unbiased recomendation. Besides, there is little that Missing Sync could do for me that Palm Desktop cannot:

Mount the memory card: I don't need it, but I already have a little USB thingie that lets me use SD cards.

Transfer MP3 files from iTunes: I can do the same thing with the Send to Handheld utility in the Palm Desktop. I also have an iPod so this is of little use to me anyway.

Browse the web with AvantGo: I use Plucker, which I have found to be vastly superior to AvantGo. Did you know, the entire curernt Baen Free Library collection (HTML format) is a 25MB Plucker pdb file? :)

Bonus audio player and photo viewer? Big deal. If I needed such things I could find them on VersionTracker.

Internet connection sharing is largely useless for the Treo, as are the associated mail and browser apps.

The Entourage conduits may be useful, if you happen to use Entourage. I do not.

And it requires the Palm Desktop software. I doubt that will change for Cobalt devices. You will still need to use whatever free download version that palmSource or palmOne makes available.

Yeah, I'm very much looking forward to the 650 coming out. I mean, I'm already a dedicated Treo fan, and the 650 is just going to be my new fix. :) Luckily, being an AOL drone makes that a little less painful. ($100 off for a cell phone, once a year, and a $150 discount on hardware from Sprint.) But, still. :)

I make no promises that this journal will be timely and/or interesting - it is just what spills out of my brain. If you're someone you think I should 'friend', tell me who you are. Sometimes I can't tell by checking LJs of people who friend me. :-)